


Apple Shampoo (or That Time Specs Broke His Glasses)

by daltonandes



Category: Insidious (Movies)
Genre: Feelings, M/M, Muffins, Pre-Movies, copious mentions of food, slight name kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-18
Updated: 2015-07-18
Packaged: 2018-04-09 21:50:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4365449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daltonandes/pseuds/daltonandes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Specs breaks his glasses. Tucker isn't really that helpful. Set before Insidious 1 and 2 and after chapter 3</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apple Shampoo (or That Time Specs Broke His Glasses)

Specs didn’t mean to break his glasses.

Well, obviously not. He swears he put them on the coffee table in front of the couch— until he sits down to watch Star Trek after a long day. 

They’d been investigating a family’s house and it hadn’t been rewarding in the slightest, only a letdown and a few dirty looks from teenage kids. And parents. That was worse.

He even makes a sandwich and some lemonade with lemons from Elise’s garden. It’s going to be a nice night— a night to relax— until he hears that undeniable crunch after he sits down.

“Fuck.”

It was the “fuck” that catches Tucker’s attention. He’s sitting in the armchair eating a plate of nachos and jalapeños, making a complete crumb mess.

Tucker grunts. “What?”

“I think I just broke my glasses.”

“What?” Tucker says again.

“I sat on them,” Specs swears and picks them up. The lenses are both cracked to shit, sure enough, and the frames are all wonky. “Of course.”

“Bummer, man.”

“A bummer? This isn’t a bummer, Tuck. A bummer is when someone eats the last piece of pizza…this is my life being ruined!”

“Take five, drama queen.”

Specs makes a face at his partner.

“Was that a dig at me by the way?” Tucker asks. “The thing about the pizza?”

Specs rolls his eyes and covers his face. “I can’t see. This isn’t funny.”

“Well, obviously you can’t see, you got your hands over your eyes,” Tucker crunches.

“Can you stop?!” Specs raises his voice suddenly and Tucker smirks in return. 

“Jesus Christ, calm down, guy. We’ll get them fixed tomorrow at Walmart.”

“And what am I supposed to do until tomorrow? Wander around not being table to see?”

“You’re so overdramatic,” Tucker chuckles and sets his plate on the table. “Don’t you have contact lenses anyway?”

“No,” Specs says miserably with his face covered again. “You know we don’t make enough money for me to possibly buy contacts.”

“Tape your glasses then?”

“They’re cracked to shit, don’t you see!”

Tucker smirks again. “I never knew how much you swear when you’re angry. It’s kinda sexy.”

“Oh, stop,” Specs says, not really knowing what else to say. “You’re one to talk, Mr. ‘I can’t play Mario Kart without saying fuck at least 200 times’.”

“Everyone’s like that!” Tucker defends. “And I’d like to see you try doing Rainbow Road playing as Yoshi!”

“Tuck, I’d love to do that,” Specs says. “Except for the fact that I can’t see!”

“Steven, I swear to God.”

Specs freezes. “Man, not cool. You never use my first name anymore. It’s the nickname, always the nickname. You’re playing dirty now.”

Tucker rolls his eyes. “I can play dirtier.”

 

The rest of the night isn’t as full of bickering as it usually is, and Specs thinks it’s because Tucker actually feels sorry for him not being able to see that well. Then again, it might not actually be the case.

Tucker turns on a movie, which is just blurry shapes from what Specs sees coming from the TV, but he listens to the dialogue with his head resting on one hand. Tucker makes popcorn and even takes the time to bring some over to Specs. Then he tries feeding him.

“Dude! I’m visually impaired, not blind,” Specs says as Tucker shoves a handful of popcorn in his mouth.

Tucker must find it hilarious, he’s cracking up. But he moves away after and lets Specs eat in peace. 

“What are we watching anyway?”

“You can’t tell by the audio? It’s the Princess Bride. 80s cult classic.”

“I’ve seen it like, twice,” Specs tells him. “And once was in fifth grade.”

Tucker shrugs and shovels more popcorn in his mouth. “I actually thought this would be more up your alley, yanno. Nerd-o-mania, nerd-o-rama. It’s nerdy. Really nerdy.”

“Such creative metaphors instead of just calling me a nerd,” Specs says coyly. “You must really like me.”

“Well, who says I don’t?”

Specs looks at him—well, squints at him and looks at his blurry figure—and bites his lip.

“Hey. Come over here so I can see you better.”

Tucker gets up and sits next to him, tilting his head at his partner. “What is it?”

“Why’d you call me Steven before? You know nobody really calls me that anymore, except Elise. We’re Spectral Sightings now, yanno.”

“I like it.”

“You…like my name?”

“It suits you.”

Specs shrugs. “Is your first name actually Tucker?” 

“Not important.”

“It so is important.”

“You know you talk too much?” 

“You eat too much.”

Tucker doesn’t argue, only smirks. “Well, you swear too much.”

“You’re just too much.”

“We make a great team.” 

Specs smirks. “We sure do.”

Tucker smiles at him, and Specs gets this weird feeling in the pit of his stomach that he can’t shake. It goes away as the film drones on, but it doesn’t leave his mind.

 

The next morning, Elise comes over with breakfast for the boys. Tucker is already awake and on his second cup of coffee and is thrilled when he finds out it’s Elise’s famous blueberry muffins. He eats two before Elise asks where on Earth Specs is.

“Oh, probably sleeping still.”

“Probably? Don’t you know where your partner is? You do live with him.”

“I’m not his keeper,” Tucker says back but heads toward Specs’ room anyway. If Specs doesn’t wake up soon, he will eat all the muffins and that was a promise. He wonders if  
telling him that would get him up faster. 

He knocks. “Hey, man, get up. Blueberry muffins! They’re super yummy!”

No answer, so Tucker does the next acceptable thing, which is to barge right in.

Specs is indeed still asleep, on his stomach, and the room is dark with the AC cranking and the blinds shut. 

Tucker is about to leave him alone because there’s no way in hell he’s waking up in the arctic tundra that is this room. He’s even got his heating blanket on, which makes no sense  
to Tucker.

That's when Specs rolls over and mutters something in his sleep that sounds vaguely like Tucker’s name.

He moves quickly out of there and shakes his head at the door. Fuck.

 

Specs wake up around 11, and by then there’s one muffin left sitting on the counter with a note “For Specs” scribbled in Sharpie next to it. Elise and Tucker are watching some movie on Lifetime and the house smells like cinnamon and coffee.

“Well, look who’s up,” Elise says and smiles at him, that smile that's always warming.

Specs yawns and sits at the counter, rubbing his eyes.

“Where are your glasses, Steven?”

“Broken,” Specs sighs and unwraps the lopsided-but-delicious-looking muffin. “Tucker suggested Walmart to get them fixed.”

“Well, get dressed when you’re done,” says Elise. “We’ll go soon as possible.”

“What about the Michaelson’s house?” Tucker asks.

“It’s not haunted,” Specs says while eating.

“Like hell it’s not!”

“You’re such an amateur."

“And you’re not? Really?”

“Boys, please,” Elise says. “You know we’re not going back to the Michaelson’s. They’ve made it clear they don’t want our help.”

“Cool,” Specs says. “Assholes.”

“Steven,” Elise warns. “They were nice people. They just didn’t need us enough.”

Tucker stares at Specs, sitting there in his white T-shirt and boxers, and wonders when he got so pissy.

 

Elise and Specs head off to the nearest Walmart, Tucker wanting to stay home because Hell’s Kitchen reruns were on TV. 

It takes 10 minutes of waiting for an assistant in the glasses section, 5 minutes of waiting again, and finally a half hour wait for the actual glasses fixing.

Luckily Elise is a good conversation maker. She asks Specs about last night and how he and Tucker are getting along.

“We’re okay, I guess. We’re partners, so I guess we have to be.”

Elise nods. “You two will be fine, I know that. You have a lot of chemistry.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Friendship chemistry,” Elise clarifies. “I can feel it.”

“Is that…good?”

She nods. “Of course it is, Steven.”

“He thinks I’m annoying. I never thought we’d actually be working together all the time and living together, too.”

“Oh, he’ll come around. He always seems to.”

 

When Specs and Elise come home, Tucker is where they left him, watching TV.

“Can you see now?” 

“Yes, thanks, jerk,” Specs says with a smirk.

“Well, I’d ought to be leaving. Just came back to drop Steven off,” Elise says and waves before going out the front door. “You boys be good.”

“Whatever that means,” Tucker mutters and waves back.

“Hey, be respectful. She drove me there.”

Tucker shrugs.

“Do you have an issue with me? ‘Cause I’d love to hear about it.”

“Not one worth mentioning.”

“Asshole,” Specs spits. “Just tell me.”

Tucker looks up at him. “Asshole? Is that what you called me? Weird, because in your sleep you prefer to call me by my real name.”

Specs is taken aback. “I…what?”

“You don’t remember saying my name in your sleep?”

“No,” Specs says. “Is that something I’d remember?”

“You tell me.”

Specs gulps and sits down next to him. “Look, I just feel weird, that’s all. A different kind of weird.”

“Weird? You can just say you like me, Specs.”

“I don’t—”

“Say it,” Tucker says in a singsong voice.

Specs is totally blushing. “I don’t!”

“Right, okay. Captain Obvious, abandon ship. I repeat, we’re going down.”

Specs moves—and then kisses him to just shut him the fuck up. He can almost feel Tucker smirk, but he kisses back a little harder than Specs is kissing him. Tucker smells of  
something familiar...like the apple shampoo from the shower.

And it’s Tucker who breaks the kiss. “Fuck. Steven…”

“I’ve figured out I like you calling me that.”

Tucker looks at him. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, good. It’s better than Nerd-pants, I guess.”

 

Elise has a surprise for Specs a few days later. It’s like a gift, but without the traditional wrapping paper and bows.

It’s contact lenses.

“Just in case you ever break your glasses again and we can’t go fix them because we’re on some big, complicated case,” she explains with a smile. 

Specs is beyond happy as he looks at the small blue box. He contemplates hugging her. Eventually he does, hesitantly, but she hugs him back with more enthusiasm than he expected.

“Thank you so much,” he says over and over. “This is perfect. I promise.”

Elise sooner or later asks about Tucker and him, and how they are now.

“Well, you were right about chemistry,” Specs says.

“Was I?” she says.

“Yeah. It’s a little complicated, but I feel pretty positively about it.”

“Well, I’ve got time if you’ve got time.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
